Project Krypto 2009 Mod Contest

[Marcam923]

KRYPTO

Many know his name, although few have seen his face.
Into the darkness, he emerges victorious,
The light shines brightly, do not let the dark entrap you,
From the darkest moment, shines the brightest light.
Looks of a man, yet powers from beyond,
The darkness hides the light,
but from within the darkness is where the light truly shines.
It's all about what is held inside!

M.Molella - 8/25/09

Case - Coolermaster Cosmos 1000

At least that is where it began it's life. It was led to my hands with just a small vision, a small vision that will hopefully turn into a huge piece of art!

Follow the worklog below, but here are the final pictures!

[Marcam923]

So let us begin:

The majority of these mods were to improve an already awesome case. It has been the greatest pleasure to work on, and I thoroughly enjoy this case. These mods were to improve functionality, and cosmetic appearance. While maintaining an overall theme, that will all be revealed in the end.







Then I quickly got to work ripping out the front hard drive cage:





Then the reason for ripping that out, was to IMPROVE airflow!
What does that best well yes of course a couple front fans!





and some sanding on the main frame, for prep and paint later.

More pictures in the next few posts.

Enjoy!


Ok next step was to get to cutting out my Window mod to show off all that fancy new hardware!

Let the cutting begin!








You can see the first cut was rough, but right where I wanted it, after some sanding to get everything nice and smooth she look pretty again!

Next was to mod the inner trim, so that it would hold a piece of plexiglass nicely in place! Then cutting the plexiglass to fit in snug!






Once I got to this point, I realized that to get everything fitted as nice as I want it, and to give the inner look I am going for I needed to take it one step further.
Yes this one is a little crazy but all will be revealed in the end.

The cutting and the aftermath!





Finally the result!





You can also see the large hole in the top, for a little added cooling.

[Marcam923]

Paint

In the last couple pictures in the previous post, you can see some beginnings of some priming of the case.

Now for some shots of the frame painted Satin Black, and some of the prepping and finalizing of the exterior pieces.





Here are some initial shots, and the mess my garage was in, also just moved. Had to organize the garage last night in order to be able to complete everything.









Here are some shots of the exterior plastics, base coated, wet sanded and ready for final painting. Also my Lamptron Fan controller painted:






Hopefully will be back later with some final coat shots, and some other pictures!

UPDATE 8-26-09

Ok few new pictures, got the supports for the motherboard tray in, and the hard drive mount made, so the hard drive will be vented underneath to keep it cool, and slide out the front for easy cable removal and hard drive swapping if necessary. Also got the front of the case modded, and that will get mounted up later.

Will be sanding down the frame, and final painting hopefully finishing up today. Enjoy!














UPDATE 8/29/09

Well I was unhappy with the paint on the chassis, so before final painting, I sand blasted most of the paint back off, and then sanded areas that needed it back down to the metal. Alot of areas where the filler primer was applied were only sanded flat, not down to bare metal, as to try and achieve the best possible finish.

Enjoy the pictures!











I also finished the end caps for the front of the case, to finish off the area where the door would have once been installed. This way the airflow through the front fans is never restricted by the door, but the front of the case appears finished and not missing something.


UPDATE 8/31/09

Ok have a few new paint shots, all the parts are painted. I have reconfigured how I am going to mount my harddrive, so that has been changed. That update will come as the main work on the case gets finished up and I get into the electrical work.

Here are a couple paint shots, more will come later!





UPDATE 9/3/09

Here are some more shots of the paint that were updated later down in the thread.












Here are a few full size shots!











Let me know what you think!

[Marcam923]

Polishing/Lapping

UPDATE 8/29/09

Our first signs of some polishing work.

I have started lapping the heatsink for my CPU, but l et's get started with the case work first!

These are the rails, that make the feet, and top handles on the Cosmos. They were originally painted silver, until I nicely sanded them down to bare, aluminum, yes aluminum

After the first sanding with 220, then 400 then 600 then 800 then 1000 then 1500. Then hit with a very fine steel wool and some polishing compound, we get a nice mirrored finish, that will later be final buffed for a very high gloss.





UPDATE 8/31/09

Ok guys, have all four bars sanded down, and 2 of them with some initialy polishing done. So here are a couple shots for your enjoyment!






Through the polishing process, I started with 220grit on my mouse sander to knock off all the paint. Then I grabbed the following grits, 220, 400, 600, 800, 1000 and wet sanded until the previous grits scratches were gone.
Then I hit it with a buffing wheel, and some black oxide polishing compound. I need to do some further polishing, and final polishing still but the above gives you a general idea.

[Marcam923]

reserved

[Marcam923]

Electrical/Fans

UPDATE 8-26-09

Ok what will control everything in the Case as far as fans go will be my Lamptron FC-2

Why did I buy a silver one and not a black one, well I got a good deal on it, and it was exactly what I wanted to get the look I wanted!
Plus it let me take it apart!









UPDATE 9/3/09

Here we have some random shots of the fans. Very Cosmic looking. (get it "Cosmic")
Also sleeved all the fan cables, even though most of them will not be visible, I know they are there!












Here is a full size shot for the "fan"atics! LOLOLOLOL



Then a little video of the fans in action. I am getting a bit of a squeeling noise, the Lamptron fan controller is new to me, always used a Rheobus controller before, so I will lock this down eventually. This was just a test!

[Marcam923]

Lighting

UPDATE 9/6/09

This will be made clear very shortly. Basically the case will have a couple different lighting effects, this is one of them, it's UV hence it does not show up very well in the video. If I could only explain how cool it looks when standing in front of it!













Enjoy the show, another video and more photos coming later tonight!

[Marcam923]

Hardware

UPDATE 9/3/09

The coveted, the almighty, yes the hardware, the heart and soul of the beast!

In full res, just for you PaPang!

























This was a test fit, to test the integrity of the motherboard tray and make sure that I was not going to get any flex, or if I was going to need to add more support. Everything seems rock solid!

[Marcam923]

Final

ok that should do, now to fill those posts.

[PaPang]

Did it! First one to see, heh-heh. Well, I see you are structuring your worklog in chronological order of how you plan to do things. Kudos! However, do not feel constrained to strictly follow that order, mix-ups are very common, I'd say so common that we get to expect to see some things out of "order". Also, when you pre-format your worklog, we can't comment on that specific phase or stage, having to do it all at the end (which is not occupied by your worklog) which forces us to have to use the "Quote" function a lot. Even if your project is finished, you should let us have it, piece by piece (strategically alloted if you wish) so that we can digest your project.
I hope you plan to answer questions that others may make you, it shows your "human" side which counts a lot on how folks see you as a modder.
Over 50? Well we have a club for that age group in this contest forum. Those "vets" are real chatty and inquisitive and are the spice of this forum. You did know that the judges are your peers?

Well, I'll come back to see another part later. It is quite a lot! Best of luck to ya' and I hope you find this, as me, a great experience. It makes you feel sort of fuzzy and good that a grand master drops by and says something good about your project. I do, makes my day! Best of luck!

Cheers/Saludos

[Marcam923]

Yes of course I'll answer any questions! Not trying to not allow people to comment on specific portions of the worklog, I just do not want to forget to post something I have done. This way no one misses anything, myself included haha.

Yep plans always change, today was a good day for painting but I'm out of paint, so I am constructing my hard drive mount and getting the supports in for my motherboard tray.

It's not my first time

I am almost 30, any and all questions are important!

[Marcam923]

Fan controller done! Hard drive mount done! Have the mounting mechanisms for the side panels back mounted in. Also got my front pieces cut, need to finish sanding them, and paint everything for the final time tomorrow.

Either pictures later or in the morning.

[nicky_82uk]

could you please make the picture alot bigger thank you

Nicky

[Marcam923]

could you please make the picture alot bigger thank you

Nicky

click on them!

[nicky_82uk]

yea thanks alot

Nicky